Mission Reports – Page 66 – Spaceflight Now

Orion capsule closes in for lunar flyby

November 20, 2022 William Harwood

Nearly five days after its sky-lighting launch, NASA’s unpiloted Orion crew capsule closed in on the moon Sunday, on course for a critical rocket firing and lunar flyby Monday to whip the craft into a distant orbit. The goal is to pave the way toward a piloted flight around the moon in 2024.

James Webb Space Telescope spots what may be most distant galaxy yet found

November 17, 2022 William Harwood

The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted a remote galaxy shining just 350 million years after the birth of the cosmos 13.8 billion years ago, surprising astronomers who are struggling to figure out how stars and galaxies could have formed so rapidly in the wake of the Big Bang, researchers said Thursday.

NASA calls on “red crew” to fix leak near mostly fueled Artemis moon rocket

November 16, 2022 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket relied on advanced guidance algorithms, powerful cryogenic engines, and millions of lines of software code to get it off the ground for the first time Wednesday. But “there are also times when you’ve just got to put a wrench on a nut,” NASA’s Artemis ground systems program manager said. That’s what NASA did in final hours of the Artemis 1 mission’s countdown late Tuesday night, when the launch team called upon a “red crew” of two technicians and a safety engineer to tighten nuts around a leaky hydrogen valve.

NASA triumphs in successful debut launch of huge SLS moon rocket

November 16, 2022 Stephen Clark

NASA’s huge Space Launch System moon rocket finally took off from Florida early Wednesday after a decade in development, sending an unpiloted Orion crew capsule toward lunar orbit on a 25-day test flight to lay a path for astronauts to return to the moon for the first time since 1972.

Live coverage: NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission finally underway

November 15, 2022 Stephen Clark

NASA’s oft-delayed Artemis 1 lunar test flight finally got off the ground at 1:47 a.m. EST (0647 GMT) Wednesday with the inaugural blastoff of NASA’s huge Space Launch System moon rocket from Kennedy Space Center. The unpiloted demonstration mission will pave the way for future human missions to the moon.

NASA clears Artemis moon rocket for Wednesday launch

November 14, 2022 William Harwood

NASA managers Monday reviewed the threat posed by hurricane-damaged insulation on the agency’s Artemis moon rocket and cleared the $4.1 billion booster for launch “as is” early Wednesday to kick off a long-delayed flight to boost an unpiloted Orion crew capsule around the moon and back.

Engineers assessing hurricane-damaged insulation before Artemis launch Wednesday

November 13, 2022 William Harwood

NASA managers cleared the agency’s leak-bedeviled Artemis moon rocket for the start of another countdown early Monday, but engineers must resolve questions about hurricane-damaged insulation before the huge booster can be cleared for blastoff on an unpiloted moonshot.

ABL Space Systems on verge of first orbital launch attempt

November 13, 2022 Stephen Clark

ABL Space Systems could launch the first test flight of its one-ton class RS1 rocket from Alaska as soon as this week, after securing a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration, the company said Sunday.

SpaceX launches Falcon 9 booster into retirement on Intelsat mission

November 12, 2022 Stephen Clark

SpaceX launched one of its reusable Falcon 9 rocket boosters for the last time Saturday on a rare expendable mission for Intelsat, devoting all of the launcher’s propellant toward placing a pair of television broadcasting satellites into orbit. Intelsat says it paid SpaceX an additional fee for the expendable mission.

Atlas 5 rocket moves closer to retirement with final launch from California

November 10, 2022 Stephen Clark

The 301st and final Atlas rocket to launch from California blasted off Thursday with a NOAA weather satellite and a first-of-its-kind re-entry tech demo experiment, clearing the way for modifications to ready the Atlas launch pad for United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket.